User blog:SpellThorn65/Concept of the gods in Javanese culture
This is a thing that has been bothering me for a while. Well, maybe not exactly 'bothering' but more like 'nagging' me. So I decided to try and put this into writing. It is about the concept of dieties in Javanese culture. I don't know whether it is correct or not, but I assume that the concept of "gods" and "demigods" in other cultures are - or at least used to be - similar to our concept of "God" with a capital 'G' dan super-heroes, respectively. Well, in Javanese culture, it is not quite like that. They've put the gods in a similar levels with our concept of angels today. Like, yea, they have powers over nature that humans do not have, but they are not high and mighty like when we talk about Greek, Scandinavian, Indian, or any other gods. The demigods are also like that. They are all like normal human beings that inherited the personalities of their godly parent, and most times they do not have super-human powers. They might be strong, fast, accurate, clever, etc, but not ridiculously so. Talking about demigods powers in Javanese culture is basically similar to talking about human geniuses or human atheletes. They're good at something, better at doing it than other people, but not overly so. One other different thing is that in Javanese mythology, in the process of 'making' a demigod, it is not always the gods/goddesses that take the iniciative. It's not always the heavenly being that was interested first to a human, and then do something to approach the human, and start 'making' demigods. Quite the contrary, in the mythology of the most well-known demigods in Javanese culture, the Pandawa Lima (known as Pandavas in India), it was their mother that took the iniciative to call on the gods to impregnate them, and it happened not on just one, but on all five of the Pandawa brothers. All of them were concieved because their mother called on a god, and, well, did the 'thing' with those gods. By the way, yes, it wasn't a typo, I typed gods, plural. The Pandawa Brothers have different fathers. The last 2 brothers are the most interesting in my opinion, since their mother called on the twin gods Aswan and Aswin, and from her doing the 'thing' with the twin gods, she had her twin sons, the last 2 members of the Pandawa Brothers. A bit questionable, if not downright kinky if you ask me. LOL But, yeah, this thing has been the basic of my understanding of dieties of old, and that is why the concept of all high and might gods of Olympus was kind of not in-sync with my original concept of the gods. Oh, and one other thing about the Javanese gods, these gods are also known to have personality flaws, but not as alarming as the Greek gods. LOL These gods are well-mannered gods, if I may use that term. You can see in their depictions, most of them are depicted with their faces looking down to show that they are humble. Oh there are some that has their heads raised (like Bayu, Agni, and Wisnu), but it was meant to show confidence, not cockiness (well, maybe except for Wisnu, that one is a special case, he's always been the kind-but-naughty-kid among the gods, LOL) Well, that was my rambling. I hope it adds a new perspective to fellow dieties aficianados like me. Category:Blog posts